Following up because my mom asked us to wait until this afternoon to come see my father. Toronto to here is a very easy drive, even with the two-lane road segments. I put on the sat-nav as the easiest thing and it largely mirrored what I'd already guessed. Took the QEW around out of Toronto but exited at Route 24 (Victoria Avenue) to stop at a winery to buy some wine we'd had in Toronto. Unfortunately we didn't have time for a tasting. From there, the sat-nav took us south to a left turn at Route 20. Just after crossing over 406 there were warning signs that the bridge over the Welland Canal was closed for construction, so we wound up turning around and going up 406 to Route 58, which uses a tunnel under the canal (and the tunnel was down to one tube for construction). Route 58 becomes Route 57, Thorold Stone Road, and takes you back to the QEW just north of the exit for Route 420 for Niagara Falls. Given our family circumstances, we opted to skip both Niagara Falls and the Rainbow Bridge crossing and instead continued down to the Peace Bridge.
Pulled up to the Customs line at about 1:20. Quick line. The guy in front of us almost got in trouble. You know how the signs tell you to wait fairly far back until the lane clears? He ignored them. Pulled right up behind the guy in front of him as though he were at a tollbooth. Bad move. They want you to stay back because of all the cameras they have trained on your car. The CBP agent was yelling at him (couldn't hear what was said) and he backed up some distance, though not all that far. I'd love to have heard that exchange. We were through Customs within maybe 7 minutes of getting on line. Then down I-190 to I-90 to US-219.
webny99's description of US-219 is pretty spot-on. It starts out as a nice empty freeway posted at 65 mph. Reminded me a little bit of Corridor H in terms of the lack of traffic. Stopped for gas and lunch in Springville and then got back on the highway to find that the nice freeway abruptly ends just south of there. The end looks kind of like the old end near Somerset, PA, where it clearly looks like there are plans to extend the road someday but there's no hint of when. I thought the end might be fairly new, though, because at the nearby T-intersection there was a privately-placed small billboard railing against the new US-219 "bridge to nowhere" courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers and the New York DOT. From there south to I-86 it's a two-lane road, but it moved pretty well and went through a couple of scenic towns, Ellicottville being the main one in terms of being scenic.
Quick hop down I-86 to continue south on US-219. 219 is again a four-lane freeway for a little while when you exit, but it's a terrible road until the state line. It's a washboard and not remotely smooth. I know vdeane likes the "clopping" noise concrete highways cause your car to make. This road didn't cause that because the bumps were much bigger. Badly needs resurfacing. Once you hit Pennsylvania it's in pretty good shape. It narrows to two lanes after you're south of Bradford and that's when we wound up behind three tractor-trailers. Not much you can do about that but wait for a climbing lane. We got one just north of Mount Jewett and then the idiot in an SUV who was in the middle of the three trucks seemed not to care about passing them. The trucks got in the right lane, we tried to go up the left lane, and this guy was going about the same speed they were. Eventually I had just enough of a gap to whip around him on the right and get ahead of the trucks. From there down to Ridgway was uneventful other than the lights at Johnsonburg being timed to make you stop at both of them.
I can certainly see why Truck 219 at Ridgway exists AND why it doesn't extend north of the town. US-219 south of town is a very steep grade whose bottom has a curve, houses, and an intersection. Having big trucks come down the hill into that wouldn't work. Too dangerous. But north of town the road is essentially in a gorge, so trying to connect the truck route to that is impractical. Interesting area.
As webny99 suggests, the sat-nav had us turn on PA-153. We made a toilet/snack stop in Penfield (had we not found a gas station, I was going to stop on the shoulder). South of there the road goes up a steep grade and then there's a mandatory brake check for trucks, followed by a long steep downhill. Quite the descent with no runaway truck ramps. The SUV driver ahead of us was trying to ride his brakes and I eventually wound up punching it up to 80+ mph to pass him. Then a brief and unpleasant short nine-mile run down I-80 (unpleasant due to WAY too many trucks) to PA-879 to cut the corner down to I-99 via US-322 and PA-350. PA-350 had another mandatory truck brake check and another steep descent down to Bald Eagle.
From there, down I-99 to Bedford and a stop for dinner at a Wendy's. We had no desire to deal with the Turnpike and Breezewood, so we continued down US-220 to I-68. Been that way before. It's a good two-lane road, set the cruise control at 60 mph and didn't encounter anyone else going in our direction except right at the beginning when we passed some guy who was going 40. I-68 was largely empty and even I-70 wasn't bad....until just east of Hagerstown, when there was a lane closure. Everyone panicked to merge early and I used the ending lane up to the merge point, got over without incident, and immediately exited to MD-66. Took a right down to US-40, took a left, and when we crossed over I-70 it was completely empty. So we got back on via MD-17 just in time to cut between an escort vehicle and an oversized load. Of course I accelerated out of the way ASAP, and at the next hill I could see in the rearview that a ton of traffic had piled up behind the trailing escort vehicles. I wonder if taking the alternate route got us out of that clump.
I-270 was about as uneventful as it's ever been, surprisingly. One doofus from New York in an SUV who didn't have his taillights on (just DRLs), and I was rather annoyed that the cop who saw it didn't pull him over.
All in all a very easy drive and a good route to use. The two-lane roads all moved pretty well for the most part, except for the period when the three tractor-trailers were ahead of us, and for most of the drive it was possible to use the adaptive cruise control. Makes a big difference in allowing you to travel 11+ hours.
Thanks again for the routing advice and comments. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from the way home yesterday. We were in my wife's car and she doesn't like me taking pictures while I'm driving, and to be fair her car is definitely heavier than mine. Given the reason for heading home early, I didn't want to stop to take pictures anywhere either. I think she took some of the BGSs listing "USA" ahead as we approached the Peace Bridge.
